The present invention relates to an improved method of forming articles from production and/or post-consumer scrap material having a thermoplastic.
In the manufacture of vehicle parts containing thermoplastics, such as headliners, pillars, side rails, and seats, a large volume of scrap material is typically generated. Moreover, a large volume of post-consumer scrap material having thermoplastics is generated when vehicles are dismantled. Because this scrap material may contain materials other than thermoplastics, such as wood, nylon, thermosets, polyester fabrics, cellulose films, glass fibers, and natural fibers, this scrap material has typically been difficult to recycle. In many cases, this scrap material has been considered to be unrecyclable.
Normally, thermoplastics are recycled by flow processes, such as injection molding and extrusion, which involve pushing melted thermoplastic through the process to create a flow therethrough. Typically, only substantial monoplastic materials may be extruded or injection molded to provide a satisfactory product with substantial uniform density. Due to lack of obtainable flow, scrap material having different thermoplastics and other materials such as nylon, polyester fabrics, glass fibers, wood fibers and thermosets, may not be extruded or injection molded for recycling. Thus, it is desirable to provide a process through which scrap material having thermoplastics and other such materials may be recycled.
A process of recycling scrap material having polyurethane foam is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/298,132, which is assigned to the Assignee of the present invention and hereby incorporated by reference. This method involves shredding scrap material including a polyurethane foam to form a fluff having a particle size between 0.25 and 1.0 inch, and molding the fluff in a mold at an elevated temperature and pressure, without adding any significant amount of a separate binder. While this invention has industrial potential, the process requires scrap material containing a significant portion of polyurethane foam. It is desirable to recycle scrap material having thermoplastics, either with or without polyurethane foam.
Thus, what is needed is an improved method of recycling scrap material having a thermoplastic, either with or without polyurethane foam.
What is also needed is an improved system for recycling scrap material including a thermoplastic.
What is also needed is an improved method of recycling scrap material having a thermoplastic wherein the method does not require a flow process.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of forming a thermoplastic pre-preg sheet for use in a subsequent molding operation. The method includes shredding a first scrap material having a thermoplastic to form a first fluff. Then, the method includes sufficiently compacting the fluff into a thermoplastic state sufficient for forming a thermoplastic pre-preg sheet.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of forming a thermoplastic pre-preg sheet from scrap material having a first thermoplastic wherein the pre-preg sheet is for use in a subsequent molding operation. The method includes shredding the scrap material to form fluff having at least about 20 percent weight of the first thermoplastic. Then, the method includes compacting the fluff into the pre-preg sheet for molding.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a method of forming an article. The method includes shredding a first scrap material having a first thermoplastic to form a first fluff. The method further includes sufficiently compacting the fluff into a thermoplastic state sufficient for forming a thermoplastic pre-preg sheet and molding the pre-preg sheet to form the article.